The South Shore

Along this south edge the lake goes shallow and reedy, and that makes it the nursery ward — watch the margins and you'll see fry scattering ahead of your shadow, and in the evenings the surface out there dimples with rising trout like slow rain.

Look across the water and you get Gull Lake's party trick: on a still morning the peaks and the ridgeline of Reversed Peak lay themselves down on the surface, upside down and perfect. Photographers know this little lake beats its bigger neighbors for reflections precisely because it IS small — less fetch for the wind, so the mirror survives later into the day.

You might notice there aren't many gulls at Gull Lake. The name likely wandered down from the California gulls that throng Mono Lake north of here — tens of thousands nest on its islands — and early visitors were free and easy about which lake got whose name. The gulls commute over this valley; the name stuck where it landed.

Stay with the shore toward the lake's far corner — and Boone has a story for the quiet stretch ahead.